17 May 2011

VIDEO: CNN's Don Lemon Gives First TV Interview After Coming Out

CNN's Don Lemon appeared on his network yesterday afternoon for the first television interview after coming out in the New York Times. Lemon discussed his new memoir Transparent, as well as race, sexuality and the childhood sexual abuse that he suffered.

"Some people will try to equate being gay with being abused. The two couldn't be further apart because most abusers are heterosexual and they choose children from the opposite sex," said the anchor. "So those two are not connected. They just happened to be the road that I traveled."

Lemon adds: "If I'm going to be a journalist and ask people to tell me the truth—and to try to expose the truth—then I need to be truthful about who I am. If there are people like me—and I'm nervous about it—who choose to live their life openly and not have to lie ... If that had happened for me when I was young, there wouldn't be people like Tyler Clementi."

The hashtag #DonLemon was among the top three Twitter trending topics on Monday. Watch the interview WHEN YOU JUMP ...

Very poised, sane, intelligent, and need I say...handsome. Great interview and great story. Truly inspirational. What a powerful voice and role model he can be for young (and old alike) African American gay men.

this is AMAZINGLY brave and courageous of Don, several other black men have come out or admitted to being sexually abused as well this past week. This is how you shut up drag beasts like Eddie Long. We allow the church to make us silent and ashamed of ourselves. KUDOS Don KUDOS, we should all go to his FaceBook page to show him our support.